Mettendorf, Burg Fiasco
This new adventure first began when I first started the wiki and was trying to find the then missing link between Frank Weber and Peter Weber who came to America together from Germany. Frank's Family Frank's parents were recorded in the family record as John Weber (1850 - 1880) and Olive Borman (1850 - 1880). Couple of problems with this - a minor one is that Frank was born in 1867 - making John 17 - fine, ok, that's possible. A slightly more major problem, according to the same family record, after Frank's parents died, he went to live with his older sister Catherine - making John less than 17 when he had Catherine - fine, ok, still possible. An even more major problem: Catherine, it turns out, was born in 1849 - making John (-1) when he had her - hmmm... probably can't get away with that one... More research gives John's actual birthdate as May 5, 1819 in Gentingen, Germany, making him a much more likely 20 years old when he started having kids. Alright, got that straightened out - not too bad... wait... that still makes Olive Borman younger than her own child... More research! Ok, well, it turns out I can resolve that problem too, though not the way I had hoped... turns out Olive Borman probably never existed. I still have found no record of anyone named Olive Borman from that time period at all, let alone one married to John Weber. What I did find, however, is the Gentingen record that gives Frank's mother (and John's wife) as Jeanne Hatz. Actually I found a dozen records attesting to this fact, but none even recognizing that an Olive Borman ever existed. Fine, get rid of Olive - never that fond of her anyway. Makes me wonder what else the family record got wrong... Oh well, that's what research and primary sources are for. Well, turns out primary sources aren't always so good either, unless you know how to navigate them. We've already seen one example of that. Well, we're about to see another that almost makes Oberweis's record look straight-forward. Through a Mormon transcription of a German record (written in Latin), I found out that Jeanne Hatz was born in Burg, Germany to Paulus Hatz and Catherine Dischburg... or maybe Mettendorf, Germany according to another... No big deal, they are only about 2 miles away from each other. I'm sure they were just fudging the records together for these tiny towns (I think Burg, Germany currently has 18 residents and Mettendorf has about 1,000). So I just have to look at the records for Burg and Mettendorf, no big deal, it's not like they're each going to be as bad as Oberweis was... Problem 1: Jeanne Hatz is NOT Olive Borman So let's go look at the Burg record first since that's where Jeanne Hatz is supposed to be. 12 27 1767 HATZ NICOLAS UNK EVE JOANNES BURG 6 29 1770 HATZ NICOLAS UNK EVE ANTON BURG Hmm... well, that's kind of sparse pickings for Burg Hatz's... Jeanne was born in 1828 and those people aren't even in the right century. So maybe the other record was right - maybe she was really born in Mettendorf. To the Mettendorf record!! 1 31 1770 HATZ JOANNES MULLER ELIZABETH 1-14-1852 ELIZABETH METTENDORF 12 28 1843 HATZ MARIE HATZ MARIE JACOBUS METTENDORF 12 25 1834 HATZ NICOLAS FISCHELS SUSANNA PAULUS METTENDORF 0 0 UNK HATZ PAULUS OCKELS ANGELA PETER METTENDORF SUSANNA FISCHELS 0 0 UNK HATZ PETER FIDCHELS SUSANNA 12-17-1833 NONE METTENDORF 10 18 1838 HATZ PETER FISCHELS SUSANNA ELIZABETH METTENDORF Ok, still a no-go. We at least got people from the correct century this time. But wait! I know Jeanne's parents were Paulus Hatz and Catherine Dischburg! That has to help. Let's check those two records again... Well, there is a Paulus Hatz, but he is married to Angela Ockels - that's probably hard to confuse with Catherine Dischburg. And their only child was Peter... That's really hard to confuse with Jeanne. Problem 2: Dischburg Dilemma Well, I guess I already have Jeanne's info, so it doesn't really matter if she's recorded in here or not. I just need to find her parents and siblings... which are clearly not listed in the Hatz's. But if Oberweis has taught me anything, it's don't trust record takers to get anything right. Her mother is Catherine Dischburg - that's a pretty unique last name and should be easy to find. Back to Burg! 10 10 1729 CUSTODIS JOANNES UNK IRMINA IRMINA BURG 2 15 1721 CUSTODIS JOANNES UNK MARIE THEODORE BURG 11 0 1817 DUNCKEL JOANNES MEYER BARBARA 4-21-1813 JOANNES BURG 5 7 1820 DUNCKEL JOANNES MEYER BARBARA CAROLS BURG 7 7 1822 DUNCKEL JOANNES MEYER BARBARA 2 GIRLS BURG 2 5 1824 DUNCKEL JOANNES MEYER BARBARA WILH LEON BURG Nothing even close to a Dischburg. So let's go to Mettendorf again: 4 22 1741 DEWALD JOANNES UNK ELIZABETH MARIE METTENDORF 3 29 1870 DICHTER FRIEDERICUS BALLMAN ANNE EVE METTENDORF 11 2 1863 DIEL WENDELINUS EICHERT CATHERINE MATTHIAS METTENDORF 2 16 1865 DIEL WENDELINUS EICHERT CATHERINE MARGARET METTENDORF 0 0 UNK DIESBURG PETER CLEES ANGELA CATHERINE METTENDORF PAULUS HEITZ 7 6 1855 DIMMER MICHAEL BENDEL CATHERINE 11-4-1852 MATTHIAS METTENDORF 12 24 1859 DIMMER MICHAEL BENDEL CATHERINE MATTHIAS METTENDORF 6 3 1867 DIMMER MICHAEL BENDEL CATHERINE MATTHIAS METTENDORF 1 21 1870 DIMMER MICHAEL BENDEL CATHERINE FRIEDERICUS METTENDORF 3 11 1872 DIMMER MICHAEL BENDEL CATHERINE JOANNES MATT METTENDORF 7 15 1859 DIMMERS NICOLAS HARY MARIE ANNE METTENDORF 0 0 UNK DISCHBURG NICOLAS SCHMITZ SUSANNA CATHERINE WOLSDORF MATT DIMMERHAUS 10 19 1865 DOCKERTS SEBASTIANUS REICHERT SUSANNA JOANNES METTENDORF 12 23 1867 DOCKERTS SEBASTIANUS REICHERT SUSANNA DOMINICUS METTENDORF A Dischburg! A Catherine Dischburg!!... married to Matt Dimmerhaus?! That ain't right. Way to list her birthdate as 0 0 UNK so I can't see if this is the same person. Great job, record takers! But wait... a little higher there is a Diesburg (also with the birthdate 0 0 UNK!!!! I hate you lazy record takers!) But it is a CATHERINE Diesburg... maybe Diesburg is just variation of her name... Let's see, she's married to a Paulus Heitz - that could feasibly be a different spelling of Hatz, right? Right? So let's just find Paulus Heitz and Catherine Diesburg in Mettendorf: 1 21 1844 HEISE ADAMUS UNK ELIZABETH MICHAEL METTENDORF 12 5 1779 HEITZ CATHERINE HEITZ CATHERINE LEONARDUS METTENDORF 0 0 UNK HEITZ JOANNES SPODEN MARIE CATHERINE10-18-1768 NONE UNK 0 0 UNK HEITZ JOANNES SPODEN MARIE CATHERINE MARGARET METTENDORF NICOLAS MAUS 2 20 1778 HEITZ JOANNES SPODEN MARIE CATHERINE MICHAEL METTENDORF 7 5 1811 HEITZ PAULUS OSWEILER EVE MARIE METTENDORF 7 5 1811 HEITZ PAULUS OSWEILER EVE MATTHIAS METTENDORF 7 3 1812 HEITZ PAULUS OSWEILER EVE MARIE METTENDORF 7 3 1812 HEITZ PAULUS OSWEILER EVE MATTHIAS METTENDORF 5 20 1817 HEITZ PAULUS OSWEILER EVE MARGARET METTENDORF 7 19 1820 HEITZ PAULUS OSWEILER EVE CATHERINE METTENDORF 2 17 1823 HEITZ PAULUS OSWEILER EVE JOANNES METTENDORF 7 13 1825 HEITZ PAULUS OSWEILER EVE ANNE CATHERINE METTENDORF 12 10 1844 HELES ADAMUS ZWANK CATHERINE JOANNES METTENDORF Well there is a Paulus Heitz, but he's married to Eve Osweiler, not Catherine Diesburg. How can so many people in such a small town all have the same name?! But farther up there is a Catherine Heitz and Catherine Heitz (another shining triumph for the record takers) having a child, Leonardus. I know from another Mormon record that Paul and Catherine had a Leonard... maybe this is really the right people? Oh wait, that Leonard was born in 1830, this one in 1779. I probably can't fudge those people to be the same. So none of those Heitz's are right. So let's swing back to Burg, again: 2 17 1716 HEINZ DANIEL UNK MARGARET SUSANNA BURG 0 0 UNK HEITZ JOANNES PELZER ANNE MARIE PAULUS ''' '''BURG CATHERINE DIESBURG 4 13 1773 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARGARET PAULUS BURG 4 12 1775 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARGARET ANNE MARIE BURG 4 28 1778 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARGARET JOANNES BURG 4 27 1752 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE JOANNES NICOL BURG 1 11 1754 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE MARIE CATHERINE BURG 10 16 1761 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE SUSANNA BURG 8 24 1764 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE JOANNES WILH BURG 10 10 1741 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE CATHERINE CATHERINE BURG 6 5 1744 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE CATHERINE NICOLAS BURG 9 23 1746 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE CATHERINE JOANNES BURG 6 12 1750 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE CATHERINE ANNE MARIE BURG 0 0 UNK HEITZ NICOLAS MEYER EVE 1-19-1763 NONE BURG 11 22 1764 HEITZ NICOLAS MEYER EVE MARIE CATHERINE BURG 0 0 UNK HEITZ PETER DIESBURG CATHERINE 1-12-1819 NONE BURG 7 26 1809 HIESDORF PAULUS FOUS ANNE CATHERINE MATTHIAS BURG There we go, second line has a Paulus Heitz born to a Joannes Heitz and Anne Marie Pelzer and married to Catherine Diesburg. This has to be the right person. Still with the 0 0 UNK birthdate?! I hate you people. Those other three Joannes Heitz families seem to be different people though - wrong years again - so we'll ignore them. But we're not done with Diesburg yet. The second to last line has a Peter Heitz and a Catherine Diesburg being married on January 12, 1819. Granted it's PETER Heitz and not Paulus Heitz, and certainly not Paul Hatz... Also it's Diesburg and not Dischburg... but the marriage date lines up with what the Mormons are telling me. So this is probably the right person and they just got his first name wrong - it's not like names are important when taking records anyway, right?... So let's recap: Jeanne Hatz - who is NOT Olive Borman - was born to Paul Hatz and Catherine Dischburg. Paul Hatz was born to Joannes Heitz and Anne Marie Pelzer. And none of those many other Joannes Heitz's seem to be related. So I don't know if Paul had any siblings - and I still haven't found any siblings for Jeanne Hatz either. The other thing we figured out was that Catherine Dischburg's parents were Peter Diesburg and Angela Clees. So now we could look for Joannes Heitz's parents, Anne Marie Pelzer's parents, Peter Diesburg's parents, Angela Clees's parents, or Jeanne's siblings. As of writing this, I still haven't found Pelzer's parents, Diesburg's parents, or Clees's parents. That leaves Heitz's parents and Jeanne's siblings. Problem 3: Heitz's parents and Jeanne's Siblings Already, we've run into the problem that Jeanne Hatz does not show up in the original Mettendorf or Burg records, and there was no record of Paul Hatz and Catherine Dischburg's family. We did, however, find a Paulus Heitz and Catherine Diesburg, but their children were nowhere to be found. The Mormons tell me that Paul and Catherine at least had a couple of other children: Angela and Leonard - and there was a record for a Leonard Heitz being born to Catherine Heitz and Catherine Heitz. So Leonard at least is probably Jeanne's brother. There were Hatz's in Mettendorf, but none that even came close to matching, so let's look in Burg one more time for fun: 11 26 1788 HARTZ JACOBUS SCHALZ CATHERINE MARGARET BURG 9 28 1821 HARTZ PAULUS DISCHBURG CATHERINE ANGELA BURG 5 17 1823 HARTZ PAULUS DISCHBURG CATHERINE ANNE MARIE BURG 1 24 1830 HARTZ PAULUS DISCHBURG CATHERINE LEONARDUS BURG 3 5 1838 HARTZ PAULUS DISCHBURG CATHERINE MARIE BURG 4 16 1757 HARZ JOANNES UNK MARIE CATHERINE MARIE BURG 12 27 1767 HATZ NICOLAS UNK EVE JOANNES BURG 6 29 1770 HATZ NICOLAS UNK EVE ANTON ' ' BURG Oh, right, there were only 2 Hatz entries - both Nicolas and Eve. But one of their children is Joannes - maybe that's our Joannes? Running those name against the Mormon records shows that, Yes!, indeed Joannes Hatz's parents were Nicolas Hatz and Eve (Unknown) - married January 19, 1763. Joannes birthday matches up with the Mormons' info, too. Things are oddly actually coming together! Just for fun, let's look back at the Heitz entries in this town: 10 10 1741 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE CATHERINE CATHERINE BURG 6 5 1744 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE CATHERINE NICOLAS BURG 9 23 1746 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE CATHERINE JOANNES BURG 6 12 1750 HEITZ JOANNES UNK MARIE CATHERINE ANNE MARIE BURG 0 0 UNK HEITZ NICOLAS MEYER EVE 1-19-1763 NONE BURG 11 22 1764 HEITZ NICOLAS MEYER EVE MARIE CATHERINE BURG 0 0 UNK HEITZ PETER DIESBURG CATHERINE 1-12-1819 NONE BURG 7 26 1809 HIESDORF PAULUS FOUS ANNE CATHERINE MATTHIAS BURG There they are - with the same wedding date - but really? Hatz and Heitz in the same record? You can't just pick one within the same family? Jerk record people. So - Joannes Hatz's (or Heitz's) parents were Nicolas Heitz and Eve Meyer and his siblings were Anton and Marie Catherine. Not a pretty win, but I'll take it. At this point, I'm beginning to question the whole theory behind having names if we can just change them to ones only remotely similar. Hatz - Heitz, same thing. Paul - Peter? Why not. Dischburg - Diesburg? Well they both start with D and end with burg, so same thing to me! I'll just call her Catherine Duckburg from now on - same thing, right? Woo-ooo! Speaking of Catherine Duckburg, now I notice that previous Burg section: 11 26 1788 HARTZ JACOBUS SCHALZ CATHERINE MARGARET BURG 9 28 1821 HARTZ PAULUS DISCHBURG CATHERINE ANGELA BURG 5 17 1823 HARTZ PAULUS DISCHBURG CATHERINE ANNE MARIE BURG 1 24 1830 HARTZ PAULUS DISCHBURG CATHERINE LEONARDUS BURG 3 5 1838 HARTZ PAULUS DISCHBURG CATHERINE MARIE BURG 4 16 1757 HARZ JOANNES UNK MARIE CATHERINE MARIE BURG 12 27 1767 HATZ NICOLAS UNK EVE JOANNES BURG 6 29 1770 HATZ NICOLAS UNK EVE ANTON BURG I was so distracted by Hatz's who actually had the correct name that I was blinded to the ones above who DO NOT have the correct name - Catherine Dischburg (Duckburg) married to Paulus Hartz. These must be Jeanne's parents! Those names are far too close to be a coincidence - after all, who doesn't just occasionally slip a random 'r' in the middle of their name FOR NO APPARENT REASON AT ALL?!!! But... they also have an Angela AND a Leonardus! Still no Jeanne, but I don't care - close enough for me! Problem 4: The Angela Aggravation We're on a roll now. The Mormons give me one last bit of info - Jeanne's sister, Angela, married a Matthias Kohnen in Burg - or maybe Mettendorf. If wrong names don't bother me, why should wrong cities? At this point I see two people with different names living in different places and think - John Brown from Chicago and James Becker from St. Louis? Yeah, those could be the same person. Let's just check the Burg records: 11 29 1842 KOHNEN MATTHIAS HATZ ANGELA PAULUS BURG 1 30 1845 KOHNEN MATTHIAS HATZ ANGELA CATHERINE BURG 6 6 1851 KOHNEN MATTHIAS HATZ ANGELA 1-7-1840 MATTHIAS BURG 7 26 1853 KOHNEN MATTHIAS HATZ ANGELA MARIE BURG 11 22 1855 KOHNEN MATTHIAS HATZ ANGELA ANNE MARGARET BURG 11 17 1860 KOHNEN MATTHIAS HATZ ANGELA CONRADUS BURG 1 17 1863 KOHNEN MATTHIAS HATZ ANGELA MATTHIAS BURG Ok, that was just far too easy and straight forward... this just can't be that easy. Just for fun, let's check Mettendorf: 9 29 1858 KOHNEN MATTHIAS PUTZ ANGELA WILHELMUS METTENDORF Matthias Kohnen married to Angela PUTZ... right time period... almost the right names... Putz could be a misreading of Hatz... *sigh* Whatever, I don't care anymore. You've beaten me, Mettendorf. And your little Burg, too. Lesson learned: even when you go looking for a simple name like Hatz, you'll find almost everything but that: Hatz, Heitz, Haitz, Hartz... and Putz. On top of that, between Mettendorf, Burg, and the Mormons, I came up with Dischburg, Dischberg, Dieschburg, Duisburg, Diesbourg, and Diesburg. But who's counting?